Choreographer Paul Taylor Is Finally in Step With His Life

A reporter asks modern-dance visionary Paul Taylor what he loves about his works.

“I’m not sure I love them,” the former Martha Graham company soloist said. “I don’t really feel connected in a way. Once they’re done and out of the studio and on the stage, I’m usually on to the next one and they are not my babies anymore.”

You have to appreciate the lack of pretension from one of the world’s great choreographers.

That same sense of cold reality extends to his artistic assessment of his dances. He said he always wishes his pieces were better, although he notes that his perfectionism has diminished over the years.

“With every new piece I start, I feel like I never made a dance in my life; it’s like starting over every time. But I’m used to that feeling, so it doesn’t frighten me” anymore.

The drive to prove himself is gone, as well.

“I feel, well, if I want to do this, I can, but I don’t really have to,” he said. “I do feel obligated to the dancers, however, and, in a sense, to the public.”

He’s been obliging both since founding the the troupe that bears his name 41 years ago.

Taylor’s New York-based company will perform three well-known pieces Thursday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre: “Esplanade,” the troupe’s 1975 signature work, “Cloven Kingdom” (1976), and “Syzygy” (1987).

“Esplanade,” innovative for making art out of running, skipping and walking, is a joyful romp set to Bach.

“Cloven Kingdom,” never before danced locally, takes its cue from the Spinoza observation that “Man is a social animal.” Dancers alternately exhibit sophisticated and animalistic mannerisms to evince how close humanity remains to its true beastly nature.

“Syzygy,” a virtuosic showpiece, “is different than most of my dances,” Taylor said. “I call it scribbly. It has to do more with action than line, and it’s a piece that’s very hard to get a decent photograph of because nearly every movement is sort of gawky, the dancers rarely take a pose, and it’s very energetic, very fast.”

During a recent phone interview from his New York home, the genial, soft-spoken choreographer talked about his four decades as a dance-maker.

Audience reaction to his works hasn’t changed much over time, he said, recalling the night of “Esplanade’s” Washington premiere: “I was so delighted that the audience really sort of caught moments I hoped they would and laughed out loud occasionally.”

He still creates one or two new pieces a year and plans to start another one later this spring. The process hasn’t lost its sense of surprise.

“Sometimes accidents happen in rehearsal,” he said. “Someone will make a terrible mistake and I like it better than what I had in mind.”

Despite years of international touring, Taylor regrets not having “shown the work to more people.” More money to pay for more tours would have brought greater exposure, he said.

At the moment, Taylor is working on his sixth PBS “Dance in America” program (to air this fall), adapting three works for the camera: “Company B,” “Funny Papers,” and “Fields of Grass.”

Any thoughts of retirement, even at 65, are just “pipe dreams,” he said.

“I don’t know what else I’d be good for. I’m not very good at, like, doing nothing,” he said. “I’ve never be able to understand how people meditate. I’ve tried--I just go to sleep.”

* The Paul Taylor Dance Company appears Thursday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. 8 p.m. $32-$35.(714) 854-4646.